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Mitchell Crowley's avatar

Solid article, but I disagree with your framing of the high roll window. I would describe my DMing style as using the high roll window, but not for power fantasy forward momentum purposes.

Easier checks are typically going to be a larger proportion of all checks, so raising the floor on what low risk checks are made significantly reduces the amount of unnecessary checks at the table.

I definitely follow a ‘think your way out’ OSR style of DMing, however I do see value in allowing very rare Hail Mary checks, but for players those should be treated as a fail state. For the highest stakes moments at my table the assumption is that the odds of that roll will be weighted against them, so they are always looking for how to outsmart the problem in a way that lets them avoid having to roll. When I let them roll in those “very hard” circumstances it’s not just a roll for success, it’s that they have an idea for how to get through the problem but they haven’t been able to remove all of the risk.

Put simply, the high roll window is not just about power play, it can be about streamlining play while allowing high tension moments to come down to a dice roll once in a while.

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Gnomestones's avatar

Oh wide window all the way. Obey the dice.

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